The State is Dead; Long Live the State?

Kshama Sawant is the new, socialist (with emphasis on the word socialist) member of the Seattle city council.  Following are extracts of a recent speech.

It is interesting to note: several of her complaints are exactly the same complaints that are made by libertarians / Austrians, for example:

…the lives of working people, the unemployed and the poor grow more difficult by the day.

The cost of housing skyrockets, and education and healthcare become inaccessible.

This is the product of the gigantic casino of speculation created by the highway robbers on Wall Street.

Despite recent talk of economic growth, it has only been a recovery for the richest 1%, while the rest of us are falling ever farther behind.

In our country, Democratic and Republican politicians alike primarily serve the interests of big business.

There will be no backroom deals with corporations or their political servants.

It is in the solutions where differences – profound differences – are to be found:

  

This city has made glittering fortunes for the super wealthy and for the major corporations that dominate Seattle's landscape.

Of course, cities do no such thing – individuals do, by serving the needs and desires of their fellow man.

This is the reality of international capitalism…. Capitalism has failed the 99%.

It isn’t capitalism that has caused the disparities, but government intervention in the market in support of favored interests.

I will do my utmost to represent the disenfranchised and the excluded, the poor and the oppressed - by fighting for a $15/hour minimum wage….

This will certainly increase the number of unemployed in and around Seattle.

…working people need a new political party, a mass organization of the working class, run by - and accountable to - themselves.

Political parties are the problem, not the solution.

Join with us in building a mass movement for economic and social justice, for democratic socialist change, whereby the resources of society can be harnessed, not for the greed of a small minority, but for the benefit of all people.

Society holds no resources – individuals do.

Solidarity.

Respect the individual.

I by no means intend to suggest that common complaints might offer a basis for common understanding – not with those who hold such beliefs so fundamentally.

This type of thinking represents either complete cognitive dissonance or the intent to perpetuate evil.  The state is dead – and all of the points of complaint raised by Sawant are proof of its passing.  Yet, her solution demanded is to raise an even more powerful, coercive state.

I have a better idea: the state is dead; put a stake through the heart just to be sure!

(HT Charles Burris)